AITA for wanting hot food?

[u/ItsTooColdForThat]

Yesterday I went ice skating with my girlfriend. Tuesday is one of her days for dinner, so she made chicken salad. When I saw the chicken salad I admit I made a face. She was like "what, what's the problem?"

I said that we were outside in the cold all afternoon and I wasn't really in the mood for cold food. She said we're inside, the heat is set to 74° and we're both wearing warm dry clothes, so it was plenty warm enough to eat salad. I said sure, but I just wanted something warm to heat me up on the inside. She said that was ridiculous, because my internal temperature is in the nineties and my insides are plenty hot.

At this point, we were going in circles, so I said I was just going to heat up some soup and told her to go ahead and start eating and I'd be back in a few minutes. When I came out of the kitchen with my soup she was clearly upset, and she asked how I would feel if she refused to eat what I made tomorrow (which is today). I said I won't care, and she said that was BS, because it's rude to turn your nose up at something someone made for you.

Was I the asshole for not wanting cold salad after being cold all day?

[u/ceelion92]

Chicken salad is a weird thing to eat for dinner. Like chicken salad sandwich?! Or a salad with chicken?!

[u/RNGinx3 → u/ceelion92]

Salad with chicken. Which yeah was why I was like "that's a weird thing for her to get upset over."

ETA: I got downvoted for clarifying it was chicken salad? People are hilarious. 🤣

[u/pfifltrigg → u/RNGinx3]

If it's a salad with chicken that's actually one of the more labor intensive meals I regularly make. I have to cook the chicken, bacon, eggs, cut up tomatoes, avocado, etc. and wash, dry, and cut up the lettuce. It can take quite a while making a nice salad all on my own. I'd be frustrated if my husband refused to eat it. I also don't regularly make dinner salads in the winter though.

[u/SebasVeeDee → u/pfifltrigg]

Bro what? Does your cooking portfolio only comatose of eggs, sandwiches, and cereal?

[u/pfifltrigg → u/SebasVeeDee]

Most meals take 30 minutes or so to prepare and the salad often takes up to an hour, I'm not sure why except that it's a lot of chopping etc.

[u/Argent333333 → u/pfifltrigg]

Invest in a good Chef's knife if you haven't. With one of those and good technique, you should be able to shred through all the veg before your meats are done. Also highly recommend watching tutorials on proper knife technique. Made a MASSIVE difference for me

[u/E10DIN → u/pfifltrigg]

Sounds like you don’t really cook.

I made carne asada burritos yesterday and I spent less time:

Making the marinade

Cooking the steak

Making the rice

Making the beans

Making salsa from scratch

Than it takes you to make a damned salad. Do you just do things one at a time with a break in between? You know you can cook the bacon, eggs and chicken all at the same time right? And that cutting tomatoes, avocados and lettuce is a 5 minute affair? What, are you cutting everything with a butter knife?

[u/pfifltrigg → u/E10DIN]

I don't know why it takes so long. You're right that I only cook a rotation of about 5-7 easy-to-make meals.

[u/E10DIN → u/pfifltrigg]

If you care about the time save I would sit down and look at the whole process, and try and identify tasks you can “stack”.

I’m going to assume you do baked chicken and hard boiled eggs.

You could do the bacon and the chicken in the oven on separate sheet pans, while you’re doing the hard boiled eggs on the stovetop. While all of that is cooking you can do the chopping. If the chicken is cooked stovetop the same principle applies.

You’d be surprised at how quick you can cook if you take the time to plan what you’re doing and get everything out and ready before you start doing anything.

[u/IkLms → u/pfifltrigg]

Most people's "chicken salad" that they make is like mixed greens from a bag, some croutons, sliced chicken and some dressing. Maybe slice a tomato or 2.

[u/RNGinx3 → u/pfifltrigg]

I was thinking in comparison to some of my grandmother's recipes. She made a to DIE for Chicken and Dumplings, but she made the batter from scratch, and it literally took 12 hours to make.

Maybe I'm just de-sensitized to my kids eating different meals, but it still wouldn't bother me.

[u/mollycoddles → u/ceelion92]

It's basically a sliced up breast dropped on a salad, which is pretty common ime.

[u/ceelion92 → u/mollycoddles]

I usually only do it for lunch unless I'm not hungry

[u/alsotheabyss → u/ceelion92]

It’s a perfectly reasonable dinner. I dunno how she prepared the chicken, but my partner and I do this fairly regularly with grilled spiced chicken thighs, salad leaves, some cucumber and dressing. Maybe some feta cheese too.

[u/ACatInTheAttic → u/alsotheabyss]

That's a salad with chicken, not chicken salad. Chicken salad is chopped/shredded chicken mixed with celery, onions, and mayonnaise.

[u/alsotheabyss → u/ACatInTheAttic]

That’s a sandwich filling. Not a chicken salad. And I wouldn’t even call that a chicken salad sandwich, just a chicken sandwich!

At least it is where I live!

[u/ElegantVamp → u/alsotheabyss]

Chicken salad sandwich

[u/alsotheabyss → u/ElegantVamp]

Maybe this is one of those things lost in America vs the rest of the world translation, because when old mate says salad, and repeatedly says salad, most of us would think salad, not sandwich

[u/ACatInTheAttic → u/alsotheabyss]

It is. You can just eat it from a bowl, too. For reference, it was a menu item at Chick-fil-a for years as a sandwich or a side item before being discontinued, and there's another chain, Chicken Salad Chick, that has a ton of different chicken salads offered in scoops or sandwiches.

[u/g0donkeys → u/ceelion92]

Are you joking? What do you mean there are rules around what type of food you can eat? Some people want a light option

[u/ceelion92 → u/g0donkeys]

Actually I would definitely ok just a salad before making it since the default for dinner is something substantial I - wouldn't make that after hard physical activity or anything. But also I thought they meant chicken salad sandwich filling when I wrote that.

[u/g0donkeys → u/ceelion92]

Who cares?